Poem by Dante Gabriel Rossetti

The House of Life. Sonnet 56. True Woman - 1. Herself

To be a Sweetness more desired than Spring;
A bodily beauty more acceptable
Than the wild rose-tree's arch that crowns the fell;
To be an essence more environing
Than wine's drained juice; a music ravishing
More than the passionate pulse of Philomel;--
To be all this 'neath one soft bosom's swell
That is the flower of life:--how strange a thing!

How strange a thing to be what Man can know
But as a sacred secret! Heaven's own screen
Hides her soul's purest depth and loveliest glow;
Closely withheld, as all things most unseen,
The wave-bowered pearl,--the heart-shaped seal of green
That flecks the snowdrop underneath the snow.

1. The House of Life. Sonnet 26. Mid-Rapture
2. The House of Life. Sonnet 38. The Morrow's Message
3. The House of Life. Sonnet 61. The Song-Throe
4. The House of Life. Sonnet 88. Hero's Lamp
5. The House of Life. Sonnet 70. The Hill Summit

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